“We cover the night because that’s when the crazy stuff happens.”
It’s been a pretty good week on Netflix with the release of Godless to a lot of positive reviews, but if westerns aren’t really your cup of tea, there may be something else added this month that will catch your eye.
We’re talking about the release of the Netflix original documentary series Shot in the Dark. As Netflix describe it:
“Three rival freelance stringers scour the streets at night to film crime scenes, fires, accidents — and anything else they can sell to news outlets.”
Have you seen Nightcrawler starring Jake Gyllenhaal? It’s basically the same premise, but in real life as Netflix follows freelance journalists, also called stringers, who chase news stories all over Los Angeles throughout the night. Armed with cameras, police scanners and some high powered cars, the trio of competitors scour the city in search of crime, accidents, fires, basically anything that’s newsworthy to film and sell to the news networks.
At times the show can make for uncomfortable viewing, and viewer discretion is advised in many cases. As we watch the stringers carry out their jobs, the lines between what is ethical, and oftentimes downright sinister, get blurred as they wait for accidents to happen.
“I film people’s misery, I’m there at the worst times in their lives,” one of the stringers says in the show.
The series keeps you in the passenger seat as the stringers respond to all types of situations from occupational hazards – like getting too close to an accident, acting as a first responder – to the morally questionable waiting intently for an accident you know is going to happen (you’ll understand after the first episode).
A series where the first question is always, “Are you OK?”, but the second is, “Did you get the tape?”
Their positive interactions with police and firefighters show ensures that this type of activity will remain the norm for the foreseeable future, and the gripping episodes will have hungry for more insight into this strange, numb, and chilling world.
The first series of the show is available on Netflix and well worth your time.
